June 2016 30 Day Rule/Focus Pix & Discussion

MWF and Stirling Brush Focus
Switched to the Mongoose today and should have popped a new blade in it. Two weepers today
Mitchell's Wool Fat
Stirling Finest Badger
Mongoose
Feather Pro Super
Alum
Thayers WH
Captain's Choice Bay Rum
Have a great Tuesday!

 

SOTD June 7th


Merkur 34C | Gillette Rubie
RR Plissoft | Tabac
Alum| WH | Nivea ASB

Good morning friend! The blade trials continues and up today the Gillette Rubie. Let me just say the Nacet feels sharp compared to the Rubie. Plenty of tugging from the Rubie. I even stopped several times to make sure that I was riding the cap and the cutting angle was good. Unfortunately for me this blade will fall into the one time only category. One interesting thing to note my blades are labeled Gillette Rubie Plus, not Platinum Plus. Are there other flavors of these things ? Have a great day my friends!

 

Well a lot of Treets are carbon. Well, let me restate that. Several Treets are carbon. So it is possible that the Sharp Stars were added as a good stainless blade, though the Treet Platinum and New Steel aren't bad at all. The lettering on the Sharp Star is interesting as well...that balloon style font seems more appropriate to an Indian/Pakistani market, based on their own lettering in marketing. The search for truth continues! Looks like I'll be a new favorite over at alibaba as well as Etsy looking for more answers. Or, if the guys at the Mostochlegmash factory would ever read their email I might be able to short cut the hunt.

 

Jolly Good June!

June 7

Razor - Feather SS
Blade - (1)
Soap - Tabac
Brush - Wolf Whiskers Custom Silvertip
Post - Cold rinse, Alum, The Veg

Well the first week isn't quite up yet but since the Dorco blade died yesterday I decided to just go ahead and switch gear a day early. I went to the Feather SS and Kai Captain Mild blade, with my trusty '59 Super Speed and a Rapira pink as my rescue setup.

Tabac and the Wolf for the lather today and I'm finding I'm not quite getting enough water mixed in for some reason. I may try a bowl lather tomorrow just to see if I can even it out prior to lathering. I find myself lathering, then adding water to the brush and going over it again. Missing something in the loading process. Something to work on. The good news is I ended up with that great Tabac lather. Just took me longer than it should.

The different style of blade holder has been discussed before between the SS and the DX. The CJB and Greager both have the DX style with the holder tapering down to the blade with no extra lip. The SS has the lip which is supposed to help guard against slicing and dicing. Does it, however, make the razor work differently than the DX and clones? My answer from today's shave would be yes, yes indeed. I am used to the angle and set down on the Greager so when I went to start today I missed it completely. The lip forces you to either take a very shallow angle, or to extend it out to get away from that lip. It's a minute change from the DX style angle, but it's enough to mess your whole world up when you start and you aren't used to it. It took a couple of tries on the right side to find an efficient angle, and after that it was a good shave.

Setting the angle on the left also proved a bit tricky but I was getting adjusted to it by then. I do think, however, that when you lose your angle by a bit it's more difficult to reset it than the DX style. With the DX style if you roll off angle a hair you know it instantly from the feel and it's easy to roll it back into place. With the SS I lost angle a couple of times without really noticing, other than the audible feedback dropped and the shave felt rough at that point. I understand the reason for the SS's design, but as of today I prefer the Greager and its DX lineage. That could change by the end of the week.

No need for the Super Speed today. Finished two passes and touchup with a DFS and that's fine with me.

 

I just read this post over at SMF, Perhaps the crappy Rubie's we have are counterfeit

http://forum.shavemyface.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=55297

 

June 7, 2016

Focusing on my Schick Type L (L1 and L7) this month.

Cool shower, cold water shave.
Razor: 1965-80 Schick Type L7
Blade: Schick (Dutch) (1)
Brush: Stirling Kong synthetic
Soap: Stirling Island Man, M-bombed
Witch Hazel
AS: Stirling Island Man



Two-day growth, two-pass shave - XTG, ATG
Nearly perfect, easy shave.
Cheers!
RT

 

After some terrible CJB shaves it is good to be home and pick a straight that is not a pain stick. My face is still healing from the pain sticks but this was in the mail when I returned home.... so I could not resist taking it on it's maiden voyage.

Felt a little rough but not sure if that was due to pain stick damage. Did just three passes to let my face heal. Despite feeling rough there was zero irritation but I did not really go for it so just DFS.

Irritation A+ Closeness B+ Smoothness B Sharpness A

 

Oh my...gorgeous razor

 

Thank you, it was wait to get it but worth the wait. I will take some better pics this weekend. This is my 3rd PRC razor.

 

That's a beautiful kamisori!

 

Alumigoose V2
Kai (14)
MWF
Stirling 24mm Finest
Thayers
The Veg


Effortless BBS shave today. The Kai is still cruising along with no sign of letting up.

 

Hurt something in my back last week and the meds they have me on makes me weak, loopy and generally high so my shaves have been Barbasol Pacific Rush, Gillette Fusion, and Clubman AS. DFS every time I try on a one pass XTG with no aftershave burn. First day back at work tomorrow and I'm not sure I'll be able to do it. I guess I'll find out.

 

Tuesday Shower/Shave

Shower- Noxzema facial cleaner, Dr. Bronner's All-One Hemp Citrus bar soap
Brush- RazoRock Tri-Colored
Razor- Muhle R41 on a Maggard MR5 handle
Blade- Personna Red (1)
Soap- Italian Barber Amici
Post Care- Thayers Witch Hazel with grapefruit EO and M-Bomb
Nivea Sensitive AS balm

I think I must be jinxed. Another blade that performed wonderfully in last month's focus tonight was rough and tugged, just like the Voskhod. Unlike the Voskhod though I didn't bleed. There was some irritation and a few missed spots but I ended up with a DFS. The Amici lathers so easily and smells fantastic, I can't believe it was only $3. I might be able to get one more shave in before the Bunny arrives to try my last finalist. We shall see. Have a great day folks!

 

Tracking as I suspected, The Bunny went east of the Mississippi before hopping back west. You may have time to get that last one in!

 

It sure is congrats on the gorgeous new razor

 

There are very few razors that I get razor-envy over, but I really like that one. I may have found my Birthday/Christmas present for this year. With an Irish Green wrap of course.

 

SOTD
6/7/16

Pre: Hot shower, Nivea face wash
Razor: Gillette Fat Boy
Blade: Sharp Star
Brush: TGN Finest in Olivewood handle
Soap: TSD special

Post: cold water rinse, Maggard alum block, witch hazel, Gillette after shave balm

I got a really good shave tonight despite a personal error to start, still got a BBS shave. I thought I had started out on 3 tonight so I could feel the shave a little better, but oh no I started out on 7. After a few swipes with it feeling like the Ladas I used before that were so rough I looked at my settings again and yea you guessed it I had somehow set it wrong. Well I corrected it and finished my first pass WTG although I did get a small weeper on my neck. Second pass was XTG and it felt more comfortable, wow I'm glad I caught that early. My face was feeling really smooth at this point and I though about quitting right there, but what the heck I decided to go onto the ATG pass. The third pass was great and I knew I was almost Flipper smooth so I did just a little clean up and bang, Flipper showed up and I was looking at him in the mirror. I finished with a cold water rinse, followed up with the alum which let me know I had gotten a little to close on my neck in that first pass. I splashed on the witch hazel and rubbed on some of the Gillette after shave balm and was done. It was a really good shave after I figured out my mistake at the beginning, I'll make sure I don't do that again.

Irritation B Closeness A+ Smoothness A+ Sharpness A+

 

Thank you.

Order 2 months before your birthday, there is a wait. PRC is easy to work with to customise your razor. I have three PRC razors and they take a great edge.

 

One Brush to Rule this month

TBS synthetic
Saponificio Varesino Manna di Sicilia
Gold Bug 4/8 Slightly Smiling Straight
Drygulch #43 Black Latigo & Hemp strop
Gillette 195 @5 / Voskhod blade
Clubman Special Reserve AS Cologne


Great face lathering brush, get you one! The Body Shop synthetic will have me shopping for others, if any compare. This Italian triple milled soap when lathered wet gave great glide for my first shave with my second Whipped Dog straight. Between Perry @PLAla 's PIF of Troy @Troy M 's PIF of Adam @Drygulch 's PIF of this Pro grade strop and a great straight from Larry at Whipped Dog I did receive a very smooth WTG/XTG shave. I must admit to a bit of ATG cleanup with the FatBoy. Now I need to pull out the previous WD straight, a 5/8 Brandt #100, and see how this Drygulch Leatherworks strop smooths my edge.
I haven't used a straight since Focus of March this year. Had to get my Casual SE rating up to snuff for The Bunny. But I left enough wiggle room in this month's Focus to enjoy The Dark Side. It's nice to be home.

 

Jolly June!!!
Focus Day 2 - Ralf Aust 5/8




The focus remained on the two spine-width angle and appropriate pressure, and had a pretty good day with it! Two passes for the DFS... The alum was calmer today, makes me think I got the angles right. The Veg was the Veg. Long but productive day, lots of rain on the prairie. Other than that...all is quiet in Colorado.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!